Orissa's Cesco renamed as CESU

The new entity, created after unsuccessful attemps to sell Cesco, will be managed by an an 8-member board.

The Central Electricity Supply Company (CESCO), involved in power distribution in coastal Orissa, has been renamed as Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) with its management control vested with an eight-member board nominated by the Orissa Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC).

"Efforts for sale of the utility did not materialise, as also the attempt to hand over the management to central utility NTPC. Therefore, the commission has formulated and approved a scheme for operation and management of the CESU," an official statement said here.

Cesco's licence was revoked last year, after which management control was vested with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and administrator, it said.

The eight-member team includes chairman, the CEO and administrator (full-time members), three experts from power sector and two state government representatives.

Former bureaucrat V Pattanayak had been nominated as the chairman to head CESU while former managing director of CESCO GP Shankar and current CEO and administrator D Biswal has been taken in the board.

Under the new arrangement, all assets, rights, liabilities, day-to-day management, administration and general superintendence, including control of finance and manpower of the utility, have been vested with the board, the statement said.

It further said the board had the power to acquire, hold and dispose off any property and to enter into any contract for the benefit of the utility.

"The commission may at any time remove the chairman and members of the board or dissolve it by passing appropriate order," the statement said.